EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement

Lord Bishop of Rochester Excerpts

Friday 8th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Rochester]

My Lords, I wish to address an issue which, despite all that is covered by the agreement, remains, at least in part, unresolved. It concerns the position of UK nationals living and/or working in the EU. I declare a personal interest which will become clear. I am indebted to the Bishop in Europe for briefing me on a range of situations which have a serious impact on UK nationals living in his diocese, which covers 25 out of 27 EU states plus the EEA and Switzerland.

A number of the difficult cases concern those whose family and/or work situation involves working or family relationships which cross borders. My own son is a UK national employed in the UK by a multinational company who in normal times works across Europe. His spouse works for a different multinational and is both employed and resident in Austria. Hitherto, my son has been able to be based in both the UK and Austria, but that is now becoming more problematic. Bishop Robert has supplied me with other case studies, including those where a person living and/or working in one country has dependent relatives in another. One such is a UK national married to a third-country national, both having residency in France. They need to stay in France so that their child can complete education there, but there is an elderly relative in the UK who will need family support. The UK national could come to the UK to give that support, giving up employment in France, but could not earn the required spouse residency points for the spouse also to come.

In the case of another couple, one a UK national and one an EU national, both have worked for some 25 years in specialist roles within the European institutions. Moving back to the UK at their stage to start new employment here would be difficult. Although the EU spouse once had leave to remain in the UK, that lapsed a long time ago. This British citizen now feels cut off from the land of her birth and her wider family who live here.

I cite these cases because they relate to the right to family life—a whole-family life and not just the most immediate family—which I believe to be hugely important for human well-being. We are talking here of people who are proud of and wish to retain their British citizenship and their family relationships within both the EU and the UK. For all my adult life, that has been possible, and many have shaped their lives, relationships and careers in that context. Such cases are relatively easy to identify; I am sure practical solutions can be found. I urge Her Majesty’s Government to engage as a matter of urgency with other Governments in the EU to find those solutions and thereby defend the right to family life.